Sitting at my desk at work on a goddamn conference call. Extraordinarily BORING. And i believe that this has very little to do with my actual job. Although its kind of cool to be in on the decisions being made on software that before a couple months ago did not exist. Usually when a company ‘upgrades’ their software some one comes in and just trains you on it, right? But i get to be witness to the detailed un-awesomness that is picking apart a web-based program/database that will eventually be used by thousands of people.

but I digest.

What i was going to write about here was the A-W-E-S-O-M-E astromech droid that i bought last night at the Wally-World. (Also, expect some tweets and maybe a blog post about how the new yellow and green color palate that my WalMart is getting as part of its renovation makes me want to jab my eyes out with a titanium spork.)

(Note to self: quit getting distracted, you’re on a godalmightyboringconferencecallbytheway)

So, I was sent on a late night run to the WalMart for an undisclosed reason, and after taking care of that which needed attention I somehow found myself staring at the limited number of Star Wars toys that were awaiting the arrival of their newest cousins due in August (including the $35 Boba Fett helmet that my wife has promised me for my birthday this year).

“the Star Wars BOBA FETT HELMET allows children to pretend to be their favorite bounty hunter.” -not to mention the parents who have wanted a Boba Fett helmet since nineteen-fucking-eighty.

So, there’s not much on the shelf, and pickin’s are extremely slim. But hey, whats that? laying over on the side, almost in the whatever-toy-is-to-the-left-of-the-star-wars-toys, is this little guy:

Say hi R2!Basically, I’m sort of allowed to buy myself an action figure under 2 sets of circumstance: 1) if Dylan is with me, he gets one too. 2) If he isn’t with me, I have to remember to get him something later. He’s not that into SW figures, so maybe I’ll get him a Transformer later in the week. I figure, hey I’m here by myself (for once) and no one really needs to know that I’m adding to my slow growing collection of obscure astromechs. I think he’s pretty cool. Although until about an hour ago i didn’t realize WHO’s droid it was. The uncredited X-Wing fighter, Red Ten, Theron Nett. I was secretly hoping for Porkins. But apparently he had an R5 series astromech, and I’ve never liked the design of those. meh.

This is the pilot who was blown away while escorting Red Leader through the Trench. According to some sites, he is also the guy in the Death Star meeting who complained about the opening being only 2 meters. After which of course, Luke Skywalker had to go off about how he killed rats back home (2 meter rats? ~6.5 feet long??) Still, I haven’t found the exact confirmation I need. Several websites are a little confused as to who’s who, and who is played by who.

Since Red Ten is uncredited in the movie… and I can’t find any confirmed pictures of Mauy Chaykin. (unless this is a misspelling of Maury Chaykin who is a tremendous actor… Nero Wolf?)… I’m going to go with what we have.

–Later—

OK, this post kind of languished a bit when my conference call got WAY off topic and I bolted. Now its day two…

Basically, this new R2 gets added to my (small) droid collection which also features R2-B1 (One of the droids who died valiantly trying to fix Amidala’s cruiser during her escape from Naboo near the beginning of Episode I), as well as an R4-G9. My collection is tiny compared to others… No R2-D2, I just realized. Thinking of adding the R2-KT droid to a collection that will go to my daughter when she is old enough to not put action figures in her mouth, but we’ll see 🙂

In the mean time, I’ve told Dylan that he can get his own R2 unit, so i might scrounge around tah interwebs to find one suitable. He should definitely have an R2-D2, and perhaps one or two others?